Increasing the OEE of an oral solutions production line by applying lean manufacturing tools

The market for pharmaceutical products has been increasing and will continue to do so in the near future. However, as patents expire, new players such as generic manufacturers get into de market and regulatory bodies limit the price of medicines, tougher competition is becoming a reality in this industry. In this context of rising costs and decreasing margins, the excessively high manufacturing costs may be a source of savings for the pharmaceutical sector This thesis discusses the background of lean production particularly as it relates to the pharmaceutical industry and presents an actual application in a production facility of an international CDMO. It firstly assesses the main causes of inefficiencies by means of the well-known OEE and its related sub indicators. The second part describes lean production techniques used to reduce planned and unplanned stops in an oral solutions production and packaging line. In concrete, the SMED methodology was applied to reduce the duration of 3 different types of CO happening in the same line while discussing the unique characteristics of a pharmaceutical changeover operation. The analysis includes actual modifications to the process as well as long term solutions to further enhance productivity. Parallelly, unplanned stops were attacked following cause root analysis prioritized by pareto principle. Availability was improved by 7%, which is translated in an OEE improvement of 2.5 points. The increase in production capacity was achieved without addition of facilities, capital investments, or negative impact upon product or process quality.